2025 German Auto show Sydney

Today was the annual German car show held in Sydney.  It’s generally a pretty good event and worth a visit.   It is no longer the concours event for the club, that is now held at a dealership earlier in the year.

This year I wondered what the event would be like as the organization had appeared a bit haphazard.   Promotion seemed to start quite late, and seemed a little disorganized.  Emblematic of this was the bold text decrying 500+ German cars, with a bullet point just a little further down the page saying the event had been limited to 450 cars only.  I personally think limiting numbers keeps people away.   The whole point of a show like this it get as many cars as possible.  I know some people stayed away because they thought they would not be allowed to pay on the day.   There were also multiple ways to buy tickets which was highly confusing, and the event website was totally broken.

Despite all that, the volunteers on the day were excellent and that was probably why the day went off very well.

The turnout from Mercedes-Benz was decent.  There was a very good display of cars.    Like last year they parked them in general categories which was much better.   The first row was SLs.   The second row was 50s and 60s era cars, such as Roundies, Finnies, W108s, compacts etc.  I took my W111 250SE cabriolet and parked in this row.   There were a number of nice W108s, a lovely Adenauer, and a very nice 300SEL 6.3 I had not seen before.   Last year was probably bigger but not by much.

The third row was W123, W116 and w126 cars.   The W126 always has a strong contingent at these events.   W123s and W116s are far smaller. The fourth row was the W124, W210, W201, W202 etc. There was also a good display of these cars, particularly the W124.  One interesting car was a W202 C36 AMG, in bright yellow with a really period interior.   This car one a show and shine award.

The other marques were not nearly as well represented.  BMW was almost non-existent.   Apparently they had a track day on the same day.   Porsche, BMW and Audi were better, but also seemed down on prior years.

This event is always a good place to catch up with people both in and out of the club.   It was good to see a lot of people I know at the event.

The weather was generally pretty good, although there were a few light showers after 11am.  It was amazing to see all the Porsches vanish when the rain started.